The four Iraqi nationals named above are at risk of imminent execution for alleged offences reported to have been committed while they were below the age of 18. They were convicted and sentenced to death after unfair trials. All four were not given legal assistance or representation and they were sentenced after secret and summary trials. They all claim that they are innocent. They are held in Rafha prison, near the border with Iraq.

According to information received by Amnesty International, Raid Halassa Sakit was arrested and detained by the General Intelligence in the town of Rafha in 2005. He was charged and tried for drug-related offences and for links with armed groups in Iraq. He had been around 16 years old at the time of these alleged crimes. He was allegedly tortured by being subjected to electric shocks and then beaten until he signed a “confession” which, because he is illiterate, he could not read.

Raid Halassa Sakit was tried in secret without legal assistance by the Criminal Court in Rafha and was initially sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. According to a report received by Amnesty International, when the judge announced the sentence Raid Halassa Sakit insisted on his innocence, to which the judge apparently replied, “You had signed”, referring to the fact that he had signed a “confession”. When Raid Halassa Sakit told the judge that he had signed because of the torture the judge told him, “Such talk is of no benefit to you now”. When he was brought back to the same court two months later he was told that the Court of Cassation in Riyadh had increased the sentence to 20 years’ imprisonment. A month later Raid Halassa Sakit was again brought back to the Criminal Court in Rafha and informed that he was sentenced to death.

Because of the secrecy of the criminal justice system in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International has been unable to obtain extensive details about the cases of the other three men. However, the organization has received reports that they were all aged between 15 and 18 at the time of their alleged crimes. Othman Ali and Aqil Matsher were arrested in 2004 and would have been around 15 years and 17 years old respectively at the time. Abbas Fadil Abbas is also reported to have been under 18 at the time of his arrest.

Prisoners in Saudi Arabia may be put to death without a scheduled date for execution being made known to them or their families. The four alleged juvenile offenders could be executed at any time.

At least 158 people, including 76 foreign nationals, were executed by the Saudi Arabian authorities in 2007, and at least 102 people, including almost 40 foreign nationals, were executed in 2008. Since the beginning of 2009, a further 42 people are known to have been executed.

Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences. Court proceedings fall far short of international standards for fair trial. Defendants are rarely allowed formal representation by a lawyer, and in many cases are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them. They may be convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under duress or deception.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Write a personally-worded appeal in Arabic, English or your own language

– urging the authorities to halt the execution of Raid Halassa Sakit, Abbas Fadil Abbas, Othman Ali and Aqil Matsher, all of whom may have been under 18 at the time of their alleged crimes;

– calling on the authorities to commute the death sentences of Raid Halassa Sakit, Abbas Fadil Abbas, Othman Ali and Aqil Matsher, particularly given Saudi Arabia’s obligations as a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

– reminding the authorities that they should act in accordance with international law, particularly Article 37 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, and end the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders.

APPEALS TO:

His Majesty King ‘Abdullah Bin ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Al-Saud
The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques
Office of His Majesty the King
Royal Court
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: (via Ministry of the Interior) 011 966 1 403 1185 (can be hard to reach)
Salutation: Your Majesty

Saudi Arabia: Two juveniles executed by Saudi authorities among a group of five

11 May 2009
Two men who were juveniles at the time of their alleged crimes were beheaded by Saudi Arabian authorities yesterday (Sunday), Amnesty International revealed today. The death sentences against Sultan Bin Sulayman Bin Muslim al-Muwallad, a Saudi Arabian, and ‘Issa bin Muhammad ‘Umar Muhammad, a Chadian, were imposed after grossly unfair trial proceedings.

The two men were beheaded, along with three other men, after being convicted of a number of offences committed when they were 17 years old, including the abduction and rape of children, theft, and consumption of alcohol and drugs. These offences had, according to the judgement, amounted to “corruption on earth”, a charge that can carry the death penalty even when the offences do not result in lethal consequences.

“Yesterday’s beheadings are a deplorable addition to Saudi Arabia’s grim tally of executions,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme. “It is cruel and inhumane to put anyone to death, but it is particularly outrageous to do so when the executions take place after grossly unfair procedures and when they take the lives of individuals accused of committing crimes when they were still minors.”

The men were among seven arrested in 2004 and held incommunicado at police stations in Madina, where they were allegedly beaten in an attempt to make them confess. Four years later, in February 2008, the Madina General Court sentenced five of them to death after a trial that was held in secret. Their sentences were upheld by the Court of Cassation in Makkah in July 2008.

Two other men in the same case – Bilal Bin Muslih Bin Jabir al-Muwallad, a Saudi Arabian, and Ahmad Hamid Muhammad Sabir, a Chadian, who were just 15 and 13 respectively at the time of their alleged offences – were sentenced to “severe flogging” on the same charges, in addition to terms of imprisonment. Specifically, they will receive 1,500 and 1,250 severe lashes respectively, administered in instalments at 10-day intervals in public at the scene of the offences. Saudi Arabia is a state party to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which expressly prohibits the use of punishments such as flogging.

Due to the strict secrecy of the criminal justice system, it is not possible to know how many of those convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18 – have been put to death in Saudi Arabia, but Amnesty International is aware of at least eight other juveniles who are feared to be on death row. They include Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan national who was 17 at the time of the alleged murder for which she was sentenced to death following her arrest in 2005. They may also include Sultan Kohail, a 16-year-old Canadian national who is facing trial in an adult court on murder charges, along with his brother Mohamed Kohail, aged 22, who has been sentenced to death.

Saudi Arabia is also a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which expressly prohibits the execution of juveniles. Saudi Arabian officials have maintained that they comply with this obligation because they do not execute children. In fact, the Convention prohibits executions for crimes committed while a person is under 18, regardless of when the sentence is carried out.

Amnesty International has repeatedly raised the cases of these seven men with the Saudi Arabian authorities in the past year.

Background
These executions increase to 36 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia this year. In 2008, a total of 102 people were killed by Saudi authorities.

Trial proceedings usually take place behind closed doors without adequate legal representation, and invariably fall short of international fair trial standards. Both children and adults are often convicted on the basis of “confessions” obtained under duress, including torture or other ill-treatment during incommunicado detention.